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The End of the World (TV story)
The End of the World 'is the second episode of the first series of ''Doctor Who. It was written by Russell T. Davies, directed by Euros Lyn and featured Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler. Overview To be added Synopsis The Doctor takes Rose on her first voyage through time, to the Five Billion. The Sun is about to expand, and swallow the Earth. But amongst the alien races gathering to watch on Platform One, a murderer is at work. Who is controlling the mysterious and deadly Spiders? Plot Following the adventure she just had, Rose gives her boyfriend Mickey a farewell kiss on the cheek and rushes into the TARDIS control room. Inside, the Doctor posits a number of possible times that she could visit, taking a few short flights to prove his claims. When Rose remains skeptical, the Doctor decides on a time and place to bring her to and sets the TARDIS's flight. The ship lands in an observation deck overseeing the Earth from above. While Rose admires the sight, the Doctor tells her that they've travelled five billion years into the future, to the day the sun expands; they've arrived to witness the end of the world. Walking to the station's main hall, the Doctor explains the planet has been preserved over the years by an intergalactic government, but the money has since been expended, forcing the human race to evacuate and find a new world. Their discussion is interrupted by the arrival of a blue-skinned Steward telling them that guests will soon be arriving; the Doctor tricks him into believing them to be guests by flashing his psychic paper. The Steward orders the staff into action then starts to usher in the guests, a mass of alien delegates including the Forest of Cheem (Jabe, Lute and Coffa), the Moxx of Balhoon, the Adherence of Repeated Meme, the Hop Pyleen brothers, Mr and Mrs Pakoo and Ambassadors of the City State of Binding Light. During the exchange of gifts, the Doctor strikes up a friendship with Jabe when they are interrupted by the arrival of the "last human", Lady Cassandra O'Brien.Δ17, a living layer of skin suspended by a metal frame with her brain in a jar. Presenting gifts of her own, including a jukebox she mistakes for an iPod, the guests start mingling; Rose quickly becomes overwhelmed by all the aliens in the room and leaves, followed by the Doctor. On his way out, Jabe scans the Doctor and is startled by the reveal of his race. While everybody is distracted, one of the pods being handed out by the Adherents of the Repeated Meme opens and a small metal spider emerges. Elsewhere, Rose meets a maintenance worker named Raffalo and, upon striking up a conversation, realises the nature of her situation and that she doesn't actually know anything about the man who brought her there. After she leaves, Raffalo crawls into the vents to examine when she is suddenly besieged by more metal spiders. In the Steward's office, he fails to notice another spider emerge from the pod he was given. In the observation room, Rose's pod breeds a robot spider too; after overseeing staff moving the TARDIS, the Doctor joins Rose and the spiders scarper. During the conversation, Rose learns that the TARDIS' telepathic circuits are what's allowing her to understand the aliens. Feeling slightly violated, Rose demands to know the Doctor's planet, but he gets defensive and refuses to answer, which soon escalates into a strongly worded fight. After tensions die down, the Doctor upgrades Rose's mobile phone, allowing her to send a call to her mother Jackie five billion years into the past. After the call ends, the entire station shakes, alerting the Doctor. In the Steward's office, he starts scanning the station and detects readings all over the craft when he spots one of the metal spiders on his desk. The spider starts to drop the office's sun filter and rushes away; unable to raise the filter again, the Steward is incinerated. The Doctor and Rose decide to investigate the station's shaking; while Rose stays to talk to some of the guest, Jabe takes the Doctor into Platform One's maintenance corridors. Rose speaks with Cassandra about the human race during the time period; Cassandra starts getting snotty about the condition of human purity, considering herself to be the last pure human. Rose starts getting aggravated by Cassandra, deeming that she has surgically removed all aspects of herself that made her human and storms off. While the Doctor examines the station's computer, Jabe reveals to the Doctor that she knows his race and his planet and profusely apologizes to him. Soon, the Doctor gets the door to the station's vent chamber open, revealing three large fans. Upstairs, Rose makes her way around the station when the Adherents of the Repeated Meme approach her and knock her unconscious. Poking around with his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor and Jabe come across one of the robot spiders, realize that the station is in danger and head back to the others. When the guests await the planet's destruction, the Doctor and Jabe find the staff gathered around the Steward's office. After raising that the sun filter from the office, the Doctor spots another filter programmed to descend. Rose wakes in the observation room as the filter starts to drop; the Doctor arrives and tries to raise it again. As soon as he manages, however, the computer starts dropping again on it's own. Before Rose is harmed, the Doctor fuses the system and raises the filter but Rose remains sealed in the room. In the main hall, the guests start making accusations about who killed the Steward; the Doctor arrives and sends the robot spider back to it's controller. It originally moves over to Cassandra but then wanders back to the Adherents of the Repeated Meme. However, the Doctor discerns that the Adherents were just androids built for cover and the spider moves back to Cassandra. With her plot exposed, Cassandra detonates the spiders in the mainframe and shuts down the station's shielding before teleporting away. With three minutes until the planet explodes, the Doctor and Jabe rush back to the vent chamber to hit the manual restore switch. Since the Doctor is unable to slow the fans himself, Jabe holds her switch down, well aware that the heat would flow through the chamber. While the Doctor hurries through the fans, the exo-glass windows in the main hall and observation chambers start to crack. Soon, the heat in the vent chamber becomes too extreme and Jabe catches fire and she burns to death. The fans increase in speed, but the Doctor manages to time his movement just right and is able to reach the switch and raise the shields just as the planet explodes. The Doctor and Rose return to the main hall where a number of guests, including the Moxx of Balhoon and others, have perished. Furious at the turn of the events, the Doctor finds Cassandra's teleport feed and pulls her back without her surgeons. Soon, Cassandra starts to dry up into the heat and the Doctor coldly watches her break apart as a result of what she'd done. After the survivors leave, the Doctor finds Rose in the main hall, despairing that everybody was too busy trying to survive to witness the destruction of the Earth and all it's history. To avail her, the Doctor brings her back to her time, where the human race is still surviving and thriving. Solemnly, the Doctor reveals to Rose that his planet no longer exists, having been destroyed in a great war, and his people, the Time Lords, went with it. Despairing himself about being on his own, Rose assures him that she's still around. When asked if she wants to go back home, she instead opts to go and eat chips instead. Cast * Doctor Who - Christopher Eccleston * Rose Tyler - Billie Piper * Steward - Simon Day * Jabe - Yasmin Bannerman * Moxx of Balhoon - Jimmy Vee * Cassandra - Zoë Wanamaker * Jackie Tyler - Camille Coduri * Raffalo - Beccy Armory * Computer Voice - Sara Stewart * Alien Voices - Silas Carson Crew To be added References To be added Story Notes To be added Continuity To be added Home video and audio releases To be added External Links * Official ''The End of the World'' page on '''Doctor Who Website